The subtitle to this post should be: “in a way that doesn’t blow up in your face”. No reasonable person expects brands to be perfect. Mistakes happen, it’s the response (or lack of one) that counts. But sometimes businesses seem…

If you’ve ever wondered what a live social media crisis simulation would be like, now’s your chance to find out! The Polpeo team will be at this month’s Digital Download in Islington, running a live crisis simulation focusing on the…

Issues that used to be dealt with between the customer and the organisation are now easily shared with the wider world. As a result, organisations need to be willing to defend their internal guidelines, or flexible enough to listen to…

Anyone who’s been involved in running a business will know that it’s impossible to completely eliminate risk. You can assess risk, and manage it, but you can’t eliminate it. Businesses need thorough risk assessments, but they also need crisis plans…

February saw some big battles when it came to brands going through crises. For starters, the on-going fight between Apple and the FBI ramped up. The tech industry gets behind Apple Investigators want Apple to create software that would, in…

On 21st October 2015 customers of UK telecoms provider, TalkTalk, found that they couldn’t access their email, and the brand’s website was also down. The next day, TalkTalk announced that it had been hacked. Major national news outlets on television,…

Yesterday, we saw the participant side of dealing with a social media crisis, today, I wanted to share observations from the other side of the simulation. Managing a social media crisis first thing on a Monday morning is not everyone’s…

Last Thursday, Polpeo ran a crisis simulation at PR Week’s Crisis Communications conference. We were in good company. There were some very inspiring and thought-provoking speakers, talking candidly about their experience of crisis, including representatives from Network Rail, Serco, TSB,…

When I think of Starbucks’ #RaceTogether campaign, I think of it scrawled on a cup of Americano and picture a harassed barista trying to explain theories on race relations, while simultaneously trying to keep the queue down, get everyone’s orders…

If you’re wondering what it’s like to be a participant at one of Polpeo’s simulations, read Casey Newton’s Verge article. He took part in our recent SXSW event, where a packed room tried desperately to salvage the reputation of a…

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Authors

Gemma is Polpeo’s Content Specialist. She develops the crisis storylines and writes social content for Polpeo. She is the principal voice of Polpeo on Twitter, and blogs on PR Examples and carrotcomms.co.uk/blog.

Kate is COO and co-founder of Polpeo. Her background is in corporate reputation, crisis management and PR, and she runs communications consultancy, Carrot Communications. She is a member of the CIPR and the PRCA’s Digital Steering Committee.

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